Whitney Leaves.

We had a lot of outside work to be done today and thankfully beautiful weather to do it in. Mark, Joan, Faith, Mackenson, and Berlica worked first on the driveway then harvesting wood. No pictures of them working so hard. I needed to get Whitney out and give her a good groom. Her owner was picking her up today and she had rolled in something. She was cleaned up then moved into the paddock next to the barn.

Why do we have white horses?  Karin arrived just as the truck and trailer picking Whitney up arrived. That was good timing. Karin took Whitney into the outdoor arena to show Jared, her owner, how we have been training her. Next out was Valiant as he also wanted to see the sire of the foal Whitney is expecting next March.

Funny but Valiant looks small compared to Whitney. After he was put away they were ready to load her and be on their way. 

I left for Sam's club for some groceries, then to church to drop of the food purchased. David and Stephanie are serving lunch tomorrow in Peoria. ALL are invited. As soon as I got home I asked Karin if she would come over to help give Roxanne's colt his shots. She was on her way over anyway as Anni, Nolan and Caleb were going to head out riding. We had the shot given while the riders were tacking up. Below they are heading down to the trails but stopped for a picture.

 These three mares all left foals behind. Anni's horse is Sally, who is the foster mom to Eli, Nolan is riding Indy who left her filly Envy behind and Caleb is riding Zalena who left her colt Flynn behind. 

 The foals were fine as they had each other. They were given grain so Eli and Flynn went right to work eating it. Envy hasn't discovered grain yet, she is just over a month and still getting most of her nutrition from her mom. 

 Flynn stuck his nose out. 

 Jessica was out cutting her brother Luke's hair so of course Bo was also out. He is such a cute pug but he isn't just cute, he is also very fertile. He has sired his first litter of 4 pug puppies with Princess Leah AND is expecting his second litter in about 3 weeks. He was also bred to Ruby, Rhoda and Lee's dog. 

 Sarah and Nolan brought both of their dogs out, below is Ari. Ari was bred to a purebred Miniature poodle a few weeks ago. Her puppies, if she conceived, are due in October. 

 The other four weanlings were also fed their grain. They actually have buckets on the other side of the shelter but they share these two first then go over to the other side to share those buckets. 

Mom had a roast in so invited us to dinner tonight along with Karin, Joan and Joan's children. After supper Joan went out to finish mowing while we played games. She mowed until dark then came in and joined in on the game.  As soon as I got home from mom's I went to work on the Berean blog. Thursday's work was entered. If you would like to read about the work done there then click HERE.
The next job was to post the pictures of the Berean Banquet held on Thursday evening. To see those pictures click HERE.
We need to be up early as we will be going in to church early to help David and Stephanie & Benji and Kristin.

God Bless Texas

With Harvey over and Irma on her way I'm praying that Florida can survive with the same spirit of Texas. Below is a fund raiser for hurricane relief.

Roxanne Pregnant Indy Not

This morning right after the walk I ran to Mike and Diane's office to balance the check book. It took a while but balanced perfectly without too much help from Diane.
I wasn't home too long before Dr. Hoerr was due to arrive. Mike left his work and came to help bring in the weanlings and mares, halter horses and just generally help hold. When Dr. Hoerr arrived all 5 of the foals getting their blood drawn for their coggins were in stalls.  Apollo, Easter Bonnett, Eli, Ethan and Esther were all surprisingly well behaved for that. Elsa just had her health exam for travel. We started moving the foals out to make room for the mares that were down to be sonagrammed. We had Dr. Hoerr do Indy first. I was pretty sure she had lost the pregnancy and was right. Indy had a CL but it was not fresh. She does not show well so Dr. Hoerr gave me a shot to give her in 5 days. The next mare done was Roxanne

and she was confirmed in foal. She is due July 21st, 2018. Her colt picked up a cold and was not feeling well. Today he was also running a fever. Dr. Hoerr gave him an Exceed shot (long lasting antibiotic) then gave me one to give him in 4 days. Then he was given gentamicin. He will need a shot each day for the next 10 days just to make sure he gets over this. He doesn't act too sick, is strong and is nursing well but we don't want to take a chance.  The next mare we had sonagrammed was Titiana, the new mare.

 She had been covered on Wednesday and ovulated on Thursday. That is perfect timing. Hope she settled.  Jazz was the last mare to be sonagrammed. She had an older CL and was given a shot to bring her in. Dr. Hoerr felt that in 2-3 days she will be ready to be covered by Valiant. We kept Dr. Hoerr busy for a couple hours but so very thankful he was willing to come. He actually made it home last night about midnight from judging an endurance ride.
This evening Diane, Joan, Faith, Berlica, Mackenson, Mark and I went out to eat at the Mexican resturant in Bartonville called Good Tequilas. It really was delicious and was a nice treat. Joan took her kids down Meister's to clean the shop while Diane and I went to mom's to play games. It was a fun evening.
My aunt Sandra and uncle Dave Getz live in Jupiter, Florida, right where hurricane Irma is to hit. They were going just stay and hope for the best as Uncle Dave has MS and it is extremely hard for them to leave but this hurricane is so strong and so huge that they are trying to move inland. It is just too risky to stay. Pray for their safety.

Easter Bonnett

We had another busy day. This evening was the Berean banquet which was well attended and lasted pretty late. Those pictures will need to be posted tomorrow. Just as we were ready to leave for the banquet, Karyn from Colorado called to put a deposit down on Easter Bonnett. She is now sold and will be leaving maybe as soon as next week. Dr. Hoerr was suppose to come on Wednesday to draw blood for the coggins tests on Easter Bonnett, Apollo, Eli, and Esther along with the scheduled sonagrams but cancelled and rescheduled for today then today cancelled and rescheduled for tomorrow morning. Sure hope the tests go out right away and get back soon. Apollo is to leave in exactly 7 days.
Everything with Easter Bonnett was going well, the deposit had been sent by paypal then transferred over to the bank when the buyer called. She had to change her mind and was not able to go through with the sale. Easter Bonnet was placed back for sale and the deposit refunded. SO this adorable half Friesian filly is still for sale.

Training Weanlings

Rhoda and Sarah arrived at 9:00 am and the first thing we did was to tease first Wicktoria (who is now out) and then Titiana. She is still in and was covered by Valiant. Sarah was in charge of watching to see if Jazz would show when Valiant was brought up but she did not. Next was to start working with the weanlings. Today we wanted to work on loading, leading, picking up their hooves and introducing them to the tarp. Esther was taken out first.

She behaved much better than we expected. Below is a video to show just how amazing this 5 month old filly is.

This filly out of Haddassah by Evan continues to impress us. She is 75% Friesian but everyone that looks at her thinks she is a purebred Friesian. She moves like one, has the hair like one, the disposition of one and even stands like a one. So if you always wanted a Friesian but couldn't afford the high price of a purebred Esther would be perfect for you. We are only asking $5000.00 and she has the added ability to be bred to a Friesian stallion at age 3 and will pay for herself PLUS with just ONE foal. The video below is of her movement taken a few days ago. She really is spectacular. 

Next out was Easter Bonnett. This filly is adorable. She loves people and is beautiful. Below Rhoda was grooming her up for the pictures and video of her training. 

 She also did very well with the tarp.

Check out her video. What a calm smart filly.

Below is a video of her movement taken couple days ago.  She is so low key she didn't really show off much in this video. She actually has better movement than this shows. 

Once these two were finished we went inside to work on the house then went to lunch. After lunch Sarah had to leave but Rhoda stayed and worked with Tori again, this time riding her both at a walk and a trot. She is doing very well with her training. 

Diane sent pictures from her holiday weekend with her grandchildren at Middle Grove. 

That land is just so big and open. The trails are wonderful and the views are outstanding. It is hard to believe this is actually in Illinois. Tonight was church which was held at the fellowship hall as our parking lot in Peoria is getting replaced. Ken Hoerr had the message. It was very good to be there. 

We Have WATER

This was written Tuesday evening late but not published until the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday. THIS is Tuesday's news.
It was a little chilly on our walk today and Joan forgot her jacket. I had been feeding the horses and was plenty warm enough so gave my jacket to her. On the second round Rhonda happened to drive by and snapped the picture below.

Rhoda arrived today and the first mare out was Wicktoria (Tori). Today Rhoda felt Tori was ready to start under saddle.

 What a change in this mare. She came here this spring a nervous wreck, just sure we were going to abuse her. She did not like people. We had been told that she was trained to ride but who wants to ride a nervous scared mare that does not pay attention to a rider? When Rhoda tried to mount the first time last spring Tori felt like she was going to explode. Tori was taken to Middle Grove and just left alone. When Karin would work the other mares Tori showed no interest at first but about a month ago Karin noticed a change. Tori came up and was watching Karin work the other mares. When a mare starts showing interest and wanting to be worked with it is such a breakthrough. Today Tori was calm and accepting of everything Rhoda asked of her. To see the rest of the training pictures click HERE. Next out was Titiana. This 3 year old has never been trained but has also not been started. She came here Sunday (2 days ago) a sweet curious willing to learn mare. It is easier to start a mare that has never been started then one that has been started badly.  She was round penned first.

 Introduced to the tarp

 The tarp carried over her head but notice Titiana is curious enough to follow. 

 she stood quietly when Rhoda put the saddle on her back and tightened it. 

 When Rhoda asked her to move was when a reaction came. Titiana went running off bucking but the bucks were so small we laughed. 

 After a couple rounds, Titiana realized it was just going to stay on her back but it didn't really bother her. She was then asked to carry the tarp around hooked to the saddle. This was no big deal at all. 

 Rhoda took her to the mounting block and jumped up and down on it. Titiana was curious but not scared. 

 And that was enough for today. Below Rhoda is leading her back over to untack. We were so very pleased. 

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures of Rhoda working with Titiana click HERE. Titiana is in season. She was taken over and covered by Valiant. That sounds so easy but for a maiden mare it was not. Both Rhoda and I worked hard to make this cover happen and were thrilled when Valiant got the job done. Dr. Hoerr was scheduled to come Wednesday morning but had to cancel. He will be here sometime Thursday afternoon. Rhoda will not be able to be here then. Bummer I'll have to find help for that.  Next we had to run in to Meisters to pay the first of the month bills just 5 days late then over to Big R in Pekin to pick up 12 bags of grain and shots for the weanlings. As soon as we got home the weanlings were given their first 5 way. They will need a booster in a month. Each of them were also de-wormed with a half of an Ivermectin. All did well for both the shot and the de-worming. We were de-worming the mares when Spark arrived to look at the water leak. Our water had been turned off but every hour I would turn it on to fill up the automatic waterers. He wanted to see the pit with the water turned on so I ran down to the house while Rhoda finished up with the horses. Spark took the excavator over to mom's first to work on her water leak. This was a big job, the leak was under the driveway slab.

 Braelyn came over to help dig. 

 John, Spark, Dan, Mike, Mark and Annie worked there and got the pipe that had broken exposed but did not have the right material to fix the leak. Fedi went to buy the right stuff while the rest came over to our place to fix our leak bringing the excavator over for the digging.

 Below they are discussing where to dig. 

 The sun was setting but there was still plenty of light. 

 Below Spark starts to dig. 

 John explaining where we would find the leak while Dan digs. 

They found the pipe. Mike went to his place to get the supplies to fix it. By this time everyone left as it was late and getting very dark. Mike was able to patch the leak by flashlight. The horses had water by 9:30 pm. What a long tiring day but thankful the leak is fixed.